World

Anti-Semitism Flares as Gaza Conflict Continues

A pro-Palestinian protester displays a burning Israeli flag during a banned demonstration in support of Gaza at Place de la Republique in Paris on July 26. The interior minister had earlier called on organizers of the Paris demonstration to observe the ban imposed to halt potential anti-Semitic violence.

Anti-Semitic vitriol often flares up in tandem with Israeli military action, and the recent conflict in Gaza is no exception.

This week, Facebook removed a page that called for the death of "baby killer israeli jews" after complaints that the page constituted hate speech. The page, which was created last week as Israel continued a military campaign in Gaza, depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire, with blood dripping from his chin, according to reports.

Eylon Aslan-Levy, a 22-year-old student at the University of Cambridge in Britain, said that, over the last few weeks, he had noticed a "flare up" of anti-Semitism online. Inspired by the "Everyday Sexism" project, which collects everyday instances of sexism experienced by women, he started a Tumblr page that invites "Jews to share their everyday experiences of anti-Semitism to remind people that this *is* a real problem and needs to be addressed urgently," as an introduction to the page put it.

“The purpose of the project is to expose to a wider audience the extent of anti-Semitism that is viewed by Jews on a daily basis,” Aslan-Levy said in an interview.

Oren Segal, director at the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told Mashable that online hate speech and particular memes can seep into real life.

"The influence of the cyber world is playing out on the street,” he said. He pointed to the adoption of the #HitlerWasRight hashtag on posters carried by some anti-Israel demonstrators in the United States.

Anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. — from the vandalization of a Florida synagogue to the hacking and defacing of Jewish websites — have become more frequent since the start of the conflict, according to the ADL.

Though the uptick is alarming, experts are even more concerned by the anti-Semitism seemingly taking hold of Europe. Since the beginning of the Gaza conflict on July 8, there have been reports of anti-Semitic assaults in France, the U.K., Italy and other parts of Europe.

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